1887
image of Everything-cleft constructions in spoken British English

Abstract

Abstract

Within the framework of Construction Grammar, this study examines constructions with a cleft form containing , e.g., , in spoken British English, using the London-Lund Corpora and the British National Corpora. We trace the development of -clefts in recent history and make comparisons with -clefts since both and express . Our aim is to determine the form-meaning properties of -clefts, to examine whether -clefts too express the and readings associated with -clefts, and whether -clefts are also dialogically contractive. The frequency per million words of -clefts, however, is 3.3, which is lower than for -clefts. Also, based on the distinction between regular predicational, reverse predicational and reverse specificational -clefts, we find that most -clefts are predicational and express and that only a small number of reverse specificational -clefts express and are dialogically contractive. Moreover, an even smaller number of -clefts also express . We argue that in -clefts stems from a metonymic link to the involved in the meaning of in analogy with reverse -clefts. The reverse exhaustive specificational -clefts are similar to -clefts and clearly deserve a place in the constructional network of English specificational cleft constructions.

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2025-01-28
2025-02-15
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